A disabled grandmother has told of her terrifying ordeal after two masked men burst into her home and attacked her.

Margaret Johnson, 78, who is just 4ft 9in tall, unknowingly allowed the men into her home thinking it was her grandson visiting.

The ordeal lasted 20 minutes, after as one of the masked men went upstairs to ransack the house, while the other forced Mrs Johnson to the floor and demanded money off her.

Mrs Johnson, of Alfreton, said: "I opened the door and straight away he put his hand over my mouth and forced me down. He kept saying: 'Do not scream else I will harm you.' He dragged me across the floor and I thought: 'God help me.'

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"He pinned me down and had his knees in my back. He shouted at me 'where is the money' and 'do not look at me, do not look at me'.

"I couldn't see the face anyway. I started to cry and said we don't have any money. It was absolutely horrific. He kept pinning me down and dragging me and shouting.

"When he threw me down, I asked him if he would do this to his grandma and he just said yes. I was in an awful lot of pain. I have had two hip replacements recently and I was really worried they were going to come out.

"He kept putting his knees into me and dragging me around. I have arthritis as well. The way he was going on I thought he was going to kill me. I thought it was going to be the end. He kept saying he was going to hurt me and I was so scared."

Her attacker then left her for a moment and Mrs Johnson tried to escape and raise the alarm. But the attacker saw her and dragged her back to the living room, reports the Derby Telegraph.

Margaret Johnson and her husband Ken (Image: Isaac Crowson)

Shortly afterwards, her husband, Ken, returned to the home and tried to fight the man off. Mr Johnson said: "I came in the house and saw the man with his hands around my wife. I didn't have time to think I just tried to get him off. It was a massive shock.

"He told me to move away else he would kill me. They then both ran off, I tried to go after them but came back because I was so scared about Margaret. We phoned the police straight away and they were here very quickly and have been fantastic. I don't think we'll ever get over or understand what has happened."

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In the days after the incident, which happened at around 4.45pm on Wednesday, November 29, they realised they had been robbed of around £3,000 in cash they had in the house for people carrying out work at their home and thousands of pounds worth of jewellery.

Mrs Johnson said: "They took everything. While I was being attacked, the other person ransacked the house. There was £2,000 taken from upstairs and around £1,000 from a wallet.

"We had it in the house because we were paying for work to be done. They also took all the jewellery. There was a gold watch, gold chains, our engagement ring and everything I have bought. Some of it I have had for 40 years.

Ken returned to the home and tried to fight the man off (Image: Isaac Crowson)